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Timeline Of Ancient Greek Mathematicians
This is a timeline of mathematicians in ancient Greece. Timeline Historians traditionally place the beginning of Greek mathematics proper to the age of Thales of Miletus (ca. 624–548 BC), which is indicated by the at 600 BC. The at 300 BC indicates the approximate year in which Euclid's ''Elements'' was first published. The at 300 AD passes through Pappus of Alexandria (), who was one of the last great Greek mathematicians of late antiquity. Note that the solid thick is at year zero, which is a year that does ''not'' exist in the ''Anno Domini'' (AD) calendar year system The mathematician Heliodorus of Larissa is not listed due to the uncertainty of when he lived, which was possibly during the 3rd century AD, after Ptolemy. Overview of the most important mathematicians and discoveries Of these mathematicians, those whose work stands out include: * Thales of Miletus () is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematicians
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History One of the earliest known mathematicians were Thales of Miletus (c. 624–c.546 BC); he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. The number of known mathematicians grew when Pythagoras of Samos (c. 582–c. 507 BC) established the Pythagorean School, whose doctrine it was that mathematics ruled the universe and whose motto was "All is number". It was the Pythagoreans who coined the term "mathematics", and with whom the study of mathematics for its own sake begins. The first woman mathematician recorded by history was Hypatia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodorus Of Cyrene
Theodorus of Cyrene ( el, Θεόδωρος ὁ Κυρηναῖος) was an ancient Greek mathematician who lived during the 5th century BC. The only first-hand accounts of him that survive are in three of Plato's dialogues: the '' Theaetetus'', the ''Sophist'', and the ''Statesman''. In the former dialogue, he posits a mathematical theorem now known as the Spiral of Theodorus. Life Little is known as Theodorus' biography beyond what can be inferred from Plato's dialogues. He was born in the northern African colony of Cyrene, and apparently taught both there and in Athens. He complains of old age in the ''Theaetetus'', the dramatic date of 399 BC of which suggests his period of flourishing to have occurred in the mid-5th century. The text also associates him with the sophist Protagoras, with whom he claims to have studied before turning to geometry. A dubious tradition repeated among ancient biographers like Diogenes Laërtius held that Plato later studied with him in Cyrene, Libya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autolycus Of Pitane
Autolycus of Pitane ( el, Αὐτόλυκος ὁ Πιταναῖος; c. 360 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. The lunar crater Autolycus was named in his honour. Life and work Autolycus was born in Pitane, a town of Aeolis within Ionia, Asia Minor. Of his personal life nothing is known, although he was a contemporary of Aristotle and his works seem to have been completed in Athens between 335–300 BC. Euclid references some of Autolycus' work, and Autolycus is known to have taught Arcesilaus. Autolycus' surviving works include a book on spheres entitled ''On the Moving Sphere'' (Περὶ κινουμένης σφαίρας) and another ''On Risings and Settings'' (Περὶ ἐπιτολῶν καὶ δύσεων) of celestial bodies. Autolycus' works were translated by Maurolycus in the sixteenth century. ''On the Moving Sphere'' is believed to be the oldest mathematical treatise from ancient Greece that is completely preserved. All Gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Callippus
Callippus (; grc, Κάλλιππος; c. 370 BC – c. 300 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician. Biography Callippus was born at Cyzicus, and studied under Eudoxus of Cnidus at the Academy of Plato. He also worked with Aristotle at the Lyceum, which means that he was active in Athens prior to Aristotle's death in 322 BC. He observed the movements of the planets and attempted to use Eudoxus' scheme of connected spheres to account for their movements. However, he found that 27 spheres was insufficient to account for the planetary movements, and so he added seven more for a total of 34. According to the description in Aristotle's ''Metaphysics'' (XII.8), he added two spheres for the Sun, two for the Moon, and one each for Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Callippus made careful measurements of the lengths of the seasons, finding them (starting with the spring equinox) to be 94 days, 92 days, 89 days, and 90 days. This variation in the seasons implies a variation in the speed of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristaeus The Elder
Aristaeus the Elder ( grc-gre, Ἀρισταῖος ὁ Πρεσβύτερος; 370 – 300 BC) was a Greek mathematician who worked on conic sections. He was a contemporary of Euclid. Life Only little is known of his life. The mathematician Pappus of Alexandria refers to him as Aristaeus the Elder. Pappus gave Aristaeus great credit for a work entitled ''Five Books concerning Solid Loci'' which was used by Pappus but has been lost. He may have also authored the book ''Concerning the Comparison of Five Regular Solids''. This book has also been lost; it is known through a reference by the Greek mathematician Hypsicles. Heath 1921 notes, "Hypsicles Hypsicles ( grc-gre, Ὑψικλῆς; c. 190 – c. 120 BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer known for authoring ''On Ascensions'' (Ἀναφορικός) and the Book XIV of Euclid's ''Elements''. Hypsicles lived in Alexandria. ... (who lived in Alexandria) says also that Aristaeus, in a work entitled ''Comparison o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menaechmus
:''There is also a Menaechmus in Plautus' play, ''The Menaechmi''.'' Menaechmus ( el, Μέναιχμος, 380–320 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician, geometer and philosopher born in Alopeconnesus or Prokonnesos in the Thracian Chersonese, who was known for his friendship with the renowned philosopher Plato and for his apparent discovery of conic sections and his solution to the then-long-standing problem of doubling the cube using the parabola and hyperbola. Life and work Menaechmus is remembered by mathematicians for his discovery of the conic sections and his solution to the problem of doubling the cube. Menaechmus likely discovered the conic sections, that is, the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola, as a by-product of his search for the solution to the Delian problem. Menaechmus knew that in a parabola y2 = ''L''x, where ''L'' is a constant called the ''latus rectum'', although he was not aware of the fact that any equation in two unknowns determines a curve. He ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinostratus
Dinostratus ( el, Δεινόστρατος; c. 390 – c. 320 BCE) was a Greece, Greek mathematician and geometer, and the brother of Menaechmus. He is known for using the quadratrix to solve the problem of squaring the circle. Life and work Dinostratus' chief contribution to mathematics was his solution to the problem of squaring the circle. To solve this problem, Dinostratus made use of the trisectrix of Hippias, for which he proved a special property (Dinostratus' theorem) that allowed him the squaring of the circle. Due to his work the trisectrix later became known as the quadratrix of Dinostratus as well. Although Dinostratus solved the problem of squaring the circle, he did not do so using Compass and straightedge constructions, ruler and compass alone, and so it was clear to the Greeks that his solution violated the foundational principles of their mathematics. Over 2,200 years later Ferdinand von Lindemann would prove that it is impossible to square a circle using straigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenocrates
Xenocrates (; el, Ξενοκράτης; c. 396/5314/3 BC) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose. Life Xenocrates was a native of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudoxus Of Cnidus
Eudoxus of Cnidus (; grc, Εὔδοξος ὁ Κνίδιος, ''Eúdoxos ho Knídios''; ) was an ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, scholar, and student of Archytas and Plato. All of his original works are lost, though some fragments are preserved in Hipparchus' commentary on Aratus's poem on astronomy. ''Sphaerics'' by Theodosius of Bithynia may be based on a work by Eudoxus. Life Eudoxus was born and died in Cnidus (also spelled Knidos), which was a city on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. The years of Eudoxus' birth and death are not fully known but the range may have been , or . His name Eudoxus means "honored" or "of good repute" (, from ''eu'' "good" and ''doxa'' "opinion, belief, fame"). It is analogous to the Latin name Benedictus. Eudoxus's father, Aeschines of Cnidus, loved to watch stars at night. Eudoxus first traveled to Tarentum to study with Archytas, from whom he learned mathematics. While in Italy, Eudoxus visited Sicily, where he studied medicine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thymaridas
Thymaridas of Paros ( el, Θυμαρίδας; c. 400 – c. 350 BCE) was an ancient Greek Mathematics, Greek mathematician and Pythagoreanism, Pythagorean noted for his work on prime numbers and simultaneous linear equations. Life and work Although little is known about the life of Thymaridas, it is believed that he was a rich man who fell into poverty. It is said that Thestor of Poseidonia traveled to Paros in order to help Thymaridas with the money that was collected for him. Iamblichus states that Thymaridas called prime numbers "rectilinear", since they can only be represented on a one-dimensional line. Non-prime numbers, on the other hand, can be represented on a two-dimensional plane as a rectangle with sides that, when multiplied, produce the non-prime number in question. He further called the number one a "limiting quantity". Iamblichus in his comments to ''Introduction to Arithmetic, Introductio arithmetica'' states that Thymaridas also worked with simultaneous linear eq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theaetetus (mathematician)
Theaetetus of Athens (; grc-gre, Θεαίτητος; c. 417 – c. 369 BC), possibly the son of Euphronius of the Athenian deme Sunium, was a Greek mathematician. His principal contributions were on irrational lengths, which was included in Book X of Euclid's ''Elements'' and proving that there are precisely five regular convex polyhedra. A friend of Socrates and Plato, he is the central character in Plato's eponymous Socratic dialogue. Theaetetus, like Plato, was a student of the Greek mathematician Theodorus of Cyrene. Cyrene was a prosperous Greek colony on the coast of North Africa, in what is now Libya, on the eastern end of the Gulf of Sidra. Theodorus had explored the theory of incommensurable quantities, and Theaetetus continued those studies with great enthusiasm; specifically, he classified various forms of irrational numbers according to the way they are expressed as square roots. This theory is presented in great detail in Book X of Euclid's ''Elements''. Theae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archytas
Archytas (; el, Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato. Life and work Archytas was born in Tarentum, Magna Graecia and was the son of Mnesagoras or Hadees. For a while, he was taught by Philolaus, and was a teacher of mathematics to Eudoxus of Cnidus. Archytas and Eudoxus' student was Menaechmus. As a Pythagorean, Archytas believed that only arithmetic, not geometry, could provide a basis for satisfactory proofs. Archytas is believed to be the founder of mathematical mechanics.: ''Vitae philosophorum'' As only described in the writings of Aulus Gellius five centuries after him, he was reputed to have designed and built the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
